Cherokeeeeeee

Family!!

Hey y'all. First of all, I love, love love you all. Thank you for all the letters and emails. Keep them coming. I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well and that life is treating y'all good! Grandma and Grandpa, thank you for the card! It made my day! And tell your sweet sister missionaries there that I said thank you for the Plan of Salvation baggie! We are teaching a few families right now that have little kids so it is PERFECT! So thank you! I love you! I'll get a letter out to y'all as soon as I can!

Man alive! This week has been quite a week! First, my companion and I survived being attacked by dogs. EVERY person has a million dogs. This one house in particular had SIX, identical wolves (they were probably dogs but we can call them wolves) running after us, ready for dinner. Luckily, we survived-Book of Mormons in hand, ready to swing away if it needed to happen. But we are still alive to tell the story so that is a good thing;)

We are still so scattered and turned around with everything because we're new but everyday gets a little bit better. The ward members (that are active) have been helpful. This ward is HUGE but you'd never guess it looking at the number of people at church every Sunday. We're putting our focus on part member families who are less active but trying to find where they are is half of our problem right now. Most people only give the church their PO box so we are working our hardest at tracking people down with the limited miles we have and the huge, spread out area that we cover.

We are working hard and trying to turn our investigators into solid investigators. Seven people we are teaching right now are under the age of 15 so that goes about how you would think it would. They are all good kids though. Three of them are our strongest investigators right now and are so ready to be baptized and are just waiting on their mother's approval (who is a less active member)  It'll hopefully happen in the very near future. We're still working with the lady who's husband passed away who we talked with about being married forever and briefly about the Plan of Salvation. We were being mighty persistant and calling her everyday to set up an appointment but she's been sick so she keeps putting us off. She called on Saturday night and said, "Girls, I've been thinking a lot about the things we talked about and I'm really sick so I can't come to church tomorrow but I will come next week. I want to meet you somewhere and follow you there and I can only wear dress slacks because that's all I have so I hope that's okay." So I'm really excited about that. We talked to her some more and explained things about church. She's doing our job for us. Inviting herself to church and everything! She's so prepared and so ready for the gospel in her life. I pray she continues the path she's on. She's doing great.

We had a Zone Meeting on Friday. There are FOUR of us Lone Peakers in my zone alone. Our high school is literally taking over the planet. But it was fun to see so many familiar faces. President had the Zone Leaders sit down with the missionaries who have opened areas and have a meeting with us to answer any questions we have and to give advice. It was helpful and eye opening to realize we aren't the only missionaries who struggle with things. But it is clear that they are all concerned for our well being. We got calls from our District Leader, Zone Leaders, the Assistants, and President Craven all in one night. My companion and I are the only two sisters opening an area in our zone and neither of us have much experience. I didn't realize that until we had our meeting and felt like we were getting the short end of the deal but it has helped me realize how much the two of us need to rely on the Lord. Every time we have dinner with a family in the ward we share a thought about how we all MUST rely on the Lord and I realize I need to take my own advice. I'm still a brand new missionary and I have a companion who is an even newer missionary and we are an in area that we know nothing about and didn't receive any help from previous missionaries. I have truly learned to take the things that are in front of me and hand them over the Lord because I cannot do it alone. I continue to learn so much about the gospel everyday and I learn more about myself everyday. I'm amazed everyday at how my capacity to love has changed. I feel like my heart is going to explode all the time with how much I love my family and my friends as well as these strangers that we come in contact with each day.

I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be a missionary right now especially at the same time as Katie. This is a one of a kind experience and I'm learning things I couldn't learn anywhere else. We have to put our trust in the Lord and trust that He knows what is best for us. He can see our full potential when all we can see is right in front of us.

I love what Kate said about reading in Mosiah. When I hit a major rough week, I was in the middle of studying Mosiah and I haven't received greater strength or hope from any other book before. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I love reading it and I love telling people about it. I love when someone commits to read it and when they can see the blessings that come in their lives when they put the Lord first. The classic quote stands true about how this is not an easy thing but it is OH, so worth it.

I love you all! I pray for each of you all the time. Be strong!

Love always,

Sister Webber